Computer networks have become a critical transport mechanism for applications that are becoming increasingly diverse and demanding. With the demand for state-of-the-art applications, guaranteed performance has become a desirable feature of computer network. The computer network should posses a high level of sophistication so as to meet the heterogeneous nature of modern applications. In particular, there is a need for efficient management of connections that are for connecting computer systems in a network.
One method for managing connections is by static connection, as illustrated in FIG. 1. It comprises a dedicated point-to-point connection between the computer systems. The static connection remains established until it is removed by configuration changes. To establish complete connectivity in a network, a connection must be configured and maintained from each node to every other node. This process can become labor intensive and expensive as the number of connections grows rapidly with the addition of nodes. It is also not fault tolerant as each static connection between the nodes is dedicated and is a single point of failure. However, static connections have the advantage of incurring relatively little communication processing cost as they remain established until removed by configuration changes. In addition, as a static connection is a dedicated link, the availability of the connection remains true at all times.
The alternate method is by a dynamic connection, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Contrary to a static connection, a dynamic connection is only established between computer systems when the nodes request a communication session. The connection is terminated once the session is completed. Dynamic connections are shared among the nodes, and therefore, are able to adapt to a growing network. The sharing of connections also enables the network to be fault tolerant. However, there is a need to re-establish the connection for each session and this incurs a processing cost.
A hybrid model, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, comprises using static connection for connecting some of the computer systems in the network, while the others uses only dynamic connection. Such a network design does not address the problems fully but rather, inherits both the advantages and disadvantages of the static and the dynamic connection.